The supervision of packet transmission networks is typically assigned to one individual with special skills in network management. Such network supervisors typically are located at one node of the network and have the responsibility of insuring the proper operation of the network to insure network services to all users of the network. Many supervisory functions, however, must take place at other nodes of the network. The establishment of connections, and the testing of those connections, for example, must be initiated by one of the nodes in the route of the connection, typically the source node. In order to centrally manage the establishment, discontinuation and restoral of routes or paths through the network for the transmission of data between users of the network, is therefore necessary to provide a mechanism for remotely monitoring, establishing, terminating and reassigning such routes from a centrally located supervisory or manager node in the network. The central node is typically called the Manager node and all other nodes are called Agent nodes. Routes between Agent nodes are created at the originating Agent node of the route and such nodes are specified either by the name of the destination node (called a named route), or by the specification of the sequence of nodes and transmission links making up the route (called a connection route). In either case, it is desirable to set up routes remotely from a centralized manager node to accommodate link failures, congestion or the need to take resources out of service.
The most common control command mechanism available for managing packet networks from a central location utilizes "SET" (set a value from a remote location) and "GET" or "GET.sub.-- NEXT" (retrieve a value from a remote location) commands. One such command structure is known as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). In the SNMP system, a simple "GET" or "GET.sub.-- NEXT" command is used to obtain a single value from a remote node in the packet network. Similarly, a simple "SET" command is used to set a single value in a remote node of the packet network. Unfortunately, this simple command structure does not lend itself well to creation, deletion and alteration of routes as is necessary for overall route management. In the prior art systems utilizing such a limited command structure, it is difficult or impossible to centrally manage route changes in the entire packet transmission system. Without central management, each node must manage all of the routes originating at that node, requiring duplication of the management facilities at each of the nodes, thereby increasing the cost and complexity and reducing the throughput of the network.
Attempts to centrally manage routing paths using these standard manager-agent interaction commands suffers from a number of problems. The network manager, for example, has no way of knowing which routes have been changed dynamically due to a transmission or device failure, or how often such changes have occurred. Similarly, the network administrator has no way to initiate the re-calculation of a route after a failed resource has been restored to service, or to specify that a certain route be used.